Cannabis has pulled in $8.7+ billion in tax revenue since 2021

CANNABIS IN CONGRESS
Blumenauer calls for action

What happened: Oregon Rep. Earl Blumenauer, perhaps the biggest champion of cannabis reform in Congress, is calling on Speaker of the House Mike Johnson to bring cannabis legislation to a floor vote as former President Donald Trump endorses reform.

What he’s saying: The outgoing Blumenauer called cannabis prohibition a “devastating public policy,” in a letter to Johnson.

“For 50 years, the Schedule I classification of cannabis has inflicted generational harm on Black and Brown communities who have suffered from the deliberate and disproportionate enforcement of criminalization,” he wrote.

Blumenauer also alluded to recent reporting where Richard Nixon — one of the main architects of the War on Drugs — admitted that cannabis “isn’t particularly dangerous.”

“It confirms what we have known for years, but we have never heard it in Nixon’s own words before.”

Why it matters: Blumenauer, the co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, clearly wants to point to some success in getting cannabis reform bills passed before he retires. 

To his credit, he’s been at it for decades.

He clearly wants to strike while the iron’s hot — with both presidential candidates supporting reform — though Johnson, a far-right religious conservative, will likely be an obstacle to reform as long as he’s Speaker.

Blumenauer is surely aware that a recent Supreme Court ruling that undermines federal agency power, known as Chevron, will make any Executive Branch-led reform weaker than if it comes from Congress.

While some bills like the MORE Act, which would federally decriminalize cannabis, may be a stretch for Republicans, something like the SAFE Banking Act, a banking bill, could finally pass given that the leaders of both parties support it. 

As they say, the tenth (?) time’s a charm. 

-JB

“We started the process of reclassifying marijuana and pardoned thousands of convictions from mere possession,” President  Joe Biden said at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Phoenix Awards dinner, “because no one should be jailed for simply using marijuana or have a barrier to jobs, housing, loans or other opportunities because of that.”

Empire strikes back 🌿

Jonathan Elfand, the CEO of the unlicensed New York City dispensary chain Empire Cannabis, told New York Dispensary Events, an instagram account for the city’s cannabis scene, filed a temporary restraining order in an attempt to shut down Mayor Eric Adams’ ‘Padlock to Protect’ program. Empire Cannabis maintains it is legal as a cannabis club, where customers pay a membership fee and receive cannabis, though the city and state disagree. An Empire location in Downtown Brooklyn remains closed, per Jeremy. 

Delta 9 in South Carolina 👀

South Carolina’s Attorney General Alan Wilson said that hemp-infused products are legal under both state and federal law — as long as the product doesn’t contain more than 0.3% Delta-9 THC on a dry weight basis. However, Wilson added that he’s unable to give a “blanket” assessment and some products need to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Wilson was responding to a letter from the state’s Speaker of the House. Read the full letter here. 

Chicago cannabis firm Green Thumb Industries announced on Monday that the company will repurchase $50 million worth of shares. That comes a few days after the firm refinanced its debt.

Canadian cannabis retailer High Tide reported its third-quarter results: $0.8 million net income on $131.7 million of revenue, up 6% year-over-year. Another highlight — $3.1 million of free cash flow for the quarter.

States with legal cannabis pulled in more than $8.7 billion in cannabis revenue since 2021, per new data from the US Census Bureau. California has pulled in more than $2 billion, followed by Washington, Colorado, and Michigan. 

The chart below shows the proportion of total tax revenue cannabis represents in each state — Colorado leads the way, at more than 1%. And check out the full data set.

New York's latest crackdown on illegal marijuana shops is finally shutting them down | Associated Press

11 States projected to be billion-dollar cannabis markets in 2024 | Cannabis Business Times